Thursday 25 tribal leaders in Najaf called on all armed groups to lay down their weapons and disband.By Dan Murphy, Christian Science Monitor.
NAJAF, IRAQ – Nabil Mahdi's small textile business in Najaf's bazaar boomed soon after the US invaded Iraq. The borders opened to Muslim pilgrims for the first time since the 1970s, and hundreds of thousands of Iranian Shiites poured into this famed holy city to pray at the Shrine of Ali, and do a little shopping.
For Mr. Mahdi, whose petroleum engineering degree became useless after he refused to join the Baath Party, it was the first taste of prosperity after decades of suffering under Saddam Hussein. But today, he sits cross-legged among his bolts of cloth without a sale or even a customer in sight.
After 20 years under Saddam, Mr. Mahdi says he has something new to be bitter about: The Mahdi army. The militia loyal to the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has engaged in sporadic gun fights with Spanish and US forces on the outskirts of the city for the past two weeks, and continues to patrol the streets here.
Militia has holy city on edge....**
Also see Murphy's blog posting about his trip to Najaf,
My pilgrimage